I've recently bought a 2013 Panasonic ET60 TV for the lounge and the sound is dreadful. It requires external speakers in my opinion, but what I want to know is whether this is possible without resorting to a second remote for adjusting the volume? If I were to connect a compatible soundbar to the HDMI (ARC) input does the TV then know it has external speakers and not to use the weedy internal jobbies??

Cheers for that, bigboss. I'd been reading up on ARC/CEC, but it was all rather confusing because the manufacturers are free to implement it in different ways, rather than it being a defined standard. I'm guessing my best bet is to stick with Panasonic gear just to make sure?

Well I went in a local TV store today just to audition a few different soundbars. Listened to a couple of the Panasonic ones and was left unimpressed. Ended up walking out with a Sonos one that I couldn't afford!

No, I haven't. Made the set up a bit of a pain, as I had to rob some networking bits off the home cinema to get it going! Still sounds a bit weedy with the TV sound, but that must be how they broadcast it. Movies are a diffent story, though, the sound is excellent and it plays music really well, too.

It is networked now, as the only way to get it to work is with the app, there's no remote for it in the box. It goes through a set up procedure and then learns the volume control signals from your TV remote near the end. You then disable the TV speakers using the hotel menu. I just need to do the PC now so I can play music from there on it...

Will do. I am gonna get a Bridge once the bank cards stop smoking so I can get rid of some of the wiring behind the TV. It doesn't work wirelessly until you have another bit of Sonos kit in the network which seems to be a clever way of getting some more dosh out of you...